Paint Schoodic

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Friday, September 26, 2014

Creativity

Maternity, Mary
Cassatt, 1890.

Cassatt never married nor
had children. It would have been impossible in her era to mix her career and a
family.

Sorry about the delayed post. I was busy caring for a baby.

Actually, I’m not all that sorry. After all, all other creativity
derives from this fundamental beginning of life. The word “create” derives from
the Latin creare: ‘to make,
bring forth, produce, beget,’ and is related to crescere: ‘arise,
grow.’ My etymology dictionary also links the latter to the Greek kouros (boy), and kore (girl), but I’ll take that
with a grain of salt.

Most of the artists I know are childless, and the ones who
do have children struggle to resolve the demands of their careers with the
demands of parenting. Not that this isn’t true of all careers, but there’s
something about the creative impulse that seems to channel in one direction or
another. I’m an outlier because not only do I have kids, I have a lot of them.

Breakfast
in Bed, Mary Cassatt, 1897.

My daughter had a difficult delivery and I’m back in
Pittsfield helping her until I’m sure she’s recovered.

We Americans have a weird attitude toward parenting. In trying
to give women equal access to the marketplace, we’ve relegated parenting to the
status of a hobby or a part-time job. Done right, it’s difficult work,
demanding high levels of organization, energy, intelligence and time. My
daughter is a well-paid professional, and I don’t want to see her dump her
career to stay home. But having worked through my own parenting years, I also
don’t want to see her wandering around in a fog of exhaustion, either.

But enough of this. Junior needs changing and his mom needs
her meds before we start the round of doctor’s office, visiting nurse, visiting
specialist. This baby stuff is a lot of work.

Baby Reaching For An Apple, Mary Cassatt, 1893

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